Abdullah Yahya

In my 12 years working in Marketing, I’ve see a few different organizational structures at both low and high levels. And in my particular role, I’ve had to work with pretty much everyone, which has given me exposure to many issues that often go unnoticed. While there are many ways you can structure an organization, whatever way you come up should always make sense based on your particular organization’s needs. Following is a structure that I think makes sense based on my experience. The specific job titles (chief, VP, director, manager, senior vs junior, etc) are just an example. The important thing is that the structure and hierarchy groups people by function, commonality and importance. The structure below is for a 2000+ employee organization. Obviously, if your organization is much smaller or larger and has more or less dependencies on particular functions, some positions and groups can be removed or consolidated or even divided and expanded.

Level 1:

• CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) or CPO (Chief Product Officer)

Level 2:

• VP of Marketing
• VP of Product

Level 3 and 4

Director of Content (or similar name)

This functional group primarily deals with marketing activities that involve text content. Since a big part of SEO involves text content, I put SEO Expert in this group.

• Public Relations Expert(s)
• Copyediting Expert(s)
• Proofreading Expert(s)
• SEO Expert(s)
• Social Media Expert(s)
• etc

Director of Design (or similar name, e.g. creative, etc)

This functional group primarily deals with marketing activities that involve visual design. Brand has to do with a company’s external public image, which relates to both public relations and design. Depending on your preference, this role could be under this “design” group or the “content” group above.

• Graphic Designer Expert(s)
• Web Designer Expert(s)
• Brand Expert(s)
• Video Expert(s)
• UI / UX Expert(s)
• etc

Director of Web (or similar name)

This functional group primarily deals with marketing activities that involve websites. Due to the criticality and complexity of today’s websites, significant dependencies that all functional groups often have on a company’s website, and unique technical skills that members of this group have, I made this group a standalone group rather than a subset of another group. Also, since email marketing is very effective, and because HTML emails contain code like that used on a website, I put HTML Email Expert(s) in this group. Though many marketing automation tools like Marketo include an email builder tool, I’ve found that they are limited in features and produce emails that don’t look professional unless the user has web development skills.

• HTML, CSS Expert(s)
• JavaScript Expert(s)
• WordPress Expert(s)
• HTML Email Expert(s)
• etc

Director of Marketing Operations (or similar name)

This functional group primarily deals with marketing activities that involve marketing automation tools like Marketo, revenue attribution tools like Bizible, data analysis and reporting tools like Tableau and Google Analytics, customer relationship management tools like Salesforce, lead processing and routing, etc.

• Marketing Automation, e.g. Marketo Expert(s)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM), e.g. Salesforce, Experts
• Reporting and Data Analysis Expert(s)
• etc

Director of Channel Marketing (or similar name, e.g. demand generation)

This functional group primarily deals with marketing activities that fall under certain channels like events, e g. virtual or in-person conferences, partner marketing, etc, and demand generation activities like advertising campaigns such as Google Pay Per Click (PPC), email marketing, digital media marketing, print advertising, etc.

• Event & Event Marketing Expert(s)
• Partner Marketing Experts(s)
• Google PPC Expert(s)
• Campaigns Expert(s)
• etc

Director of Product (or similar name)

This functional group primarily deals with product management and product-specific marketing. For example, many tech companies have multiple products. Each product requires a specific subject matter expert, as it may be uncommon to find someone who is an expert in multiple products. Each product expert (commonly called “product manager”) basically is responsible for their own product, from understanding their product’s customers’ needs, making product feature decisions, helping market a product, e.g. by writing product page content, product-related blog posts, giving product-related webinars, etc.

• Product Expert for Product A
• Product Marketing Expert for Product A
• Product Expert for Product B
• Product Marketing Expert for Product B
• etc

Project Manager

There is one role that doesn’t quite fit in any of the categories above. Needless to say, many marketing activities require the collaboration of multiple functional groups, but each of these groups specialize in their own areas. There’s no such thing as a person or group who specializes (or is even interested) in everything. One big issue I often see is how certain marketing activities with a specific hard deadline, e.g. due to an earnings release or predetermined and pre-marketed event taking place, results in chaos, with many people working nights and weekends due to lack of planning, ownership and project management. That’s why there’s a particular title called Project Manager (PM) or Project Management Professional (PMP) and a certification where people can get a PMP certificate. These people don’t specialize in the various components that go into a project, but rather they keep a project on track to avoid delays, mistakes, oversight, etc. Sometimes, they have the boring task of having to keep reminding people to do their part to avoid delays caused by blocking subsequent tasks. Assigning a random person to be a temporary project manager may work for small projects involving few people, but for large projects involving many people, a “real” project manager who actually specializes in project management is needed.

Title Hierarchy

Here’s a title hierarchy commonly used in many companies.

1. CEO
2. President / COO
3. Executive / C-Level
4. EVP
5. SVP
6. VP
7. Senior Director
8. Director
9. Senior Manager
10. Manager
11. Individual Contributor
    • Principal
    • Lead
    • Staff
    • Entry

This post explains at a high level how taxation in the US works. This article only talks about federal taxes, not state taxes.

Income

There are 2 types of income

1. Earned income, e.g.
   • salary, wages and compensation
   • appreciated assets that have been sold during the tax year
2. Unearned income, e.g.
   • canceled debts,
   • government benefits (such as unemployment benefits and disability payments),
   • strike benefits,
   • lottery payments,
   • interest,
   • dividends,
   • rents,
   • capital gains

Filing Status

When you file your taxes, you can choose from one of the following, depending on your situation:

• single
• head of household
• married filing jointly
• married filing separately

Ordinary Income Tax Rates By Income (2023)

Filing status = single

Ordinary Income Tax Rates By Income (2023)

Filing status = married filing jointly

For brevity, I omitted other tax filing statuses, including

• head of household
• married filing separately

The tax rates are also called “tax brackets” and “marginal tax” rates.

Historical US income tax rate brackets

Income from Capital Gains

• Capital gains is the profit you make from selling a capital asset.
• Capital assets include stocks, bonds, precious metals, jewelry, art, and real estate.
• Selling a capital asset after owning it for one year or less results in a short-term capital gain.
• Selling a capital asset after owning it for more than one year results in a long-term capital gain.
• Net capital gains are calculated based on your adjusted basis in an asset. This is the amount that you paid to acquire the asset, less depreciation, plus any costs that you incurred during the sale of the asset and the costs of any improvements that you made. 
• Short-term capital gains are taxed as ordinary income from your salary or wages.
• Long-term capital gains are subject to a tax of 0%, 15%, or 20% (depending on your income).

Short-Term Capital Gains Tax Rates By Income (2023)

Filing status = single

Filing status = married filing jointly

If you have $90,000 in taxable income from your salary and $10,000 from short-term investments, then your total taxable income is $100,000.

Long-Term Capital Gains Tax Rates By Income (2023)

Filing status = single

Filing status = married filing jointly

Taxable Income

• Taxable income is the portion of your gross income that the IRS deems subject to taxes.
• It consists of both earned income and unearned income.
• Taxable income is generally less than adjusted gross income because of deductions that reduce it.
• Taxable income = Gross income – deductions
• For a business, revenue – business expenses = profit. Profit – deductions = taxable income.

Deductions

The IRS offers individual tax filers the option to claim the standard deduction or a list of itemized deductions.

Standard Deduction

The standard deduction is a set amount that tax filers can claim if they don’t have enough itemized deductions to claim. For the 2022 tax year, individual tax filers can claim a $12,950 standard deduction ($13,850 for 2023). If you are married filing jointly, the standard deduction is $25,900 ($27,700 for 2023).

Itemized Deductions

If you plan to itemize deductions rather than take the standard deduction, these are the records most commonly needed:

• Property taxes and mortgage interest paid (form 1098)
• State and local taxes paid (this is on form W-2 if you work for an employer)
• Charitable donations
• Educational expenses
• Unreimbursed medical bills
• Documents related to operating a rental property, such as receipts for repairs, advertising, etc. Learn more.

Learn more about deductions

Tax Credits

A tax credit will lower your tax liability (any taxes you owe). If you don’t owe any taxes, then you may or may not get a refund, depending on the tax credit details. Some tax credit examples are

• 30% credit off the total cost of a solar panel installation
• $7,500 tax credit when you buy a qualifying electric vehicle

Learn more about tax credits

Refundable vs. Non-refundable Tax Credits

Refundable tax credit: If your tax credit is refundable, then even if you have no tax liability, e.g. if you are retired, then you will still get a refund for the entire tax credit amount.

Non-refundable tax credit: If your tax credit is non-refundable, then you will only get the full credit if your tax liability is at least as much as the tax credit. For example, if your tax credit is $1000 and your total tax liability before applying the credit is $1500, then your updated tax liability is reduced to $500. However, if your total tax liability before applying the credit is $800, then your updated tax liability is reduced to $0 and you will NOT get a refund for $200. For that reason, you should ensure your tax liability is at least as much as the tax credit you want to apply.

How to Calculate Taxable Income

1. Determine Your Filing Status
   • single,
   • married filing jointly,
   • etc
2. Gather Documents for all Sources of Income
   • form W-2 for earned compensation
   • form 1099-INT for interest income
   • etc
3. Calculate Your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
   Your AGI is the result of taking certain “above-the-line” adjustments to your gross income, such as contributions to a qualifying individual retirement account (IRA), student loan interest, and certain education expenses. These items are referred to as “above the line” because they reduce your income before taking any allowable itemized deductions or standard deductions.
4. Calculate Your Deductions (Standard or Itemized)
5. Calculate Taxable Income
   Taxable income = AGI – deductions

Marginal vs. Effective Tax Rates

The US has a progressive tax system, so your income is taxed at different rates. If your total annual income is $125,000 and your taxable income is $100,000 (income minus deductions and credits) and you are filing single, your tax liability would not be 24% of the entire $100,000. Instead, it would be $17,400. In this case, your “effective” or “average” tax rate is $17,400/$125,000 = 13.9%, which is much lower than 24%.